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Hendersonville prepares for the drought to get worse

The City of Hendersonville and Henderson County continue to experience lower than normal amounts of rainfall, resulting in lower than normal levels in the Mills River watershed, our water supply due to the on-going drought conditions affecting all of

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Hendersonville prepares for the drought to get worse

A view of the French Broad River from Craven Street bridge in the River Arts District.
Abigail Margulis/amargulis@ashevill.gannett.com
A view of the French Broad River from Craven Street bridge in the River Arts District.
A view of the French Broad River from Craven Street bridge on Monday, Sept. 14, 2015.(Photo: Abigail Margulis/amargulis@ashev)Buy Photo

HENDERSONVILLE - With no relief from the drought in sight, the city of Hendersonville is preparing to get water from the French Broad River to hopefully avoid imposing mandatory water restrictions on its residents and businesses.

Back in 2010 the city set up a 30-inch line to the river and used a temporary pump to get water to its treatment facility but to do that again, a state of emergency must be declared by the governor, Utilities Director Lee Smith said.

"We're not there yet," Lee said but he expects Gov. Pat McCrory to do that soon because of the drought conditions in the western part of the state.

According to the North Carolina Drought Monitor, which is updated each Thursday, Henderson County's drought status was bumped up from severe to extreme, which is the second highest level of drought that a county can be listed in. Additionally, most of Western North Carolina has been in a drought since late spring.

For the year, the National Weather Service has observed a rainfall total of 29.55 inches at the Asheville Regional Airport, which is 9.10 inches below normal. Since Sept. 1, only 1.10 inches of rainfall has been recorded at the site.

And with no rain predicted for the rest of 2016, the drought will worsen, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Earlier this fall, the city took precautions to conserve water as dry weather persisted. A Stage 1 water shortage was declared on Oct. 17 due to the Mills River experiencing lower than normal levels in its water supply.

Stream flow measured at Mills River on Oct. 18 was running at a flow level of 59 cubic feet per second, according to U.S. Geological Survey. Mills River is the county’s primary source of water, which has a normal stream flow of about 115 cubic feet per second.

On Nov. 4, the Mills River was running at a flow level of 51 cubic feet per second, which according to Smith is holding steady as the river is historically known to run low at some point during the year.

What's different this year is that it's during the fall rather than the summer. In August 2015, the city also issued a Stage 1 water conservation advisory due to the river's low stream flow.

The conservation goal while these voluntary measures were activated was for residents to reduce their daily water usage by 10 percent, according to Smith.

"Since Stage 1 was initiated, our daily production levels at the water treatment plant have been reduced by 7.4 percent," he said. "We are doing pretty good at this point."

By setting up a tap onto the French Broad River, the city is hoping to avoid declaring Stage 2-A mandatory water restrictions, which would prohibit all outside and non-essential use of city water and reduce usage by another 10 percent.

If this stage is enacted, residents would be asked to avoid "washing their patio, deck or driveway," Lee said. "Any kind of outside use such as washing cars, pressure washing or watering gardens or grass."

The last time Hendersonville and Henderson County experienced a severe drought was in 2008, which was the last time the city had to police the use of water. However, that drought occurred in the summer whereas this one is in the fall, Smith added.

"Our concern from this point going forward with the drought is health and safety," he said. "We haven't seen that yet and don't want that to happen (but) we like to prepare for the worst and hope for the best."